The Palace of Illusions

🎧Run Time = 12 hours and 22 minutes “Listeners will be enchanted” (AudioFile) by this Earphones Award winner with over 26,000 five-star ratings! Princess Panchaali is determined to take control of her destiny, but a dangerous civil war threatens everything. “Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent, Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl — now we can add Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusions to the list” (Miami Herald). This vivid reimagining of the world-famous Indian epic Mahabharata takes us back to a time that is half history, half myth, and wholly magical. It is told by Panchaali, wife of the Pandava brothers, a fiery female redefining for us a world of gods and warriors. The novel traces the princess Panchaali’s life, beginning with her birth in fire and following her spirited balancing act as a woman with five husbands who have been cheated out of their father’s kingdom. Panchaali is swept into their quest to reclaim their birthright, remaining at their side through years of exile and a terrible civil war involving all the important kings of India. Meanwhile, we never lose sight of her strategic duels with her mother-in-law, her complicated friendship with the enigmatic Krishna, or her secret attraction to the mysterious man who is her husbands’ most dangerous enemy—as she is caught up in the ever-manipulating hands of fate.